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Hello all, I'm new to this forum and have a question. Please bare with me as this will be a long post! Our family has two sweet parakeets who are both over 2 years old and they've grown up together. The male is super sweet and very vocal and the female has always been a bit less friendly but allows us to handle her on her terms:). We started seeing signs of them being a bonded pair and placed them on a breeding diet to prepare them for having their first clutch. We had parakeets when I was a child and allowed them to have a couple of clutches per year, yet it's been over 30 years since I've had baby budgies! They had their first clutch and unfortunately the babies never made it more than a day or two after hatching. We assumed it was due to inexperience? Then the female almost immediately laid her next clutch, 5 of her 7 were fertile and she's been a perfect mom to them and all are very healthy!! For the first couple of weeks, all was going well. The father would feed the mother and was also seen feeding the babies. The mother would let him in the nest box without issue. We've now had two babies fledge (one fledged at 3 weeks and 5 days and the second one fledged the next day). At this point, dad went down and was feeding them well and they were pecking at seed and millet (as I had put seed in their nesting box at 2 weeks as suggested by someone on this forum:) then suddenly the male became obsessed with being at the opening of the nest box and when he would attempt to go into the nest box the mother would go CRAZY and fights would ensue! They rolled and flipped all around the cage and I would have to break them up. This has never happened before. Once the fight was over, they would do okay for a little bit. Other things that I've noticed is the dad doesn't pay attention to the babies on the bottom of the cage and I'm worried they're not being fed enough nor learning how to crack seed by watching dad. He seems to be constantly pestering mom in the nest. Perhaps he's still in breeding condition and she's not? She no longer accepts feedings from him at this point and when they're in the cage together she won't leave the nesting box, appearing to be worried about the male getting into the nesting box. I'm afraid she isn't getting enough fluids, etc to keep herself healthy or to pass along to the three remaining babies in the nest. This evening I've tried something new: I placed the dad and the first two fledglings in a separate cage and have seen him paying more attention to them and have witnessed several feedings. Was this the right thing to do? Should I try to reintroduce them in a few days? What I've also noticed is the mother is now able to come out and eat and drink without being pestered. Can a once bonded pair become "unbounded"? Please let me know if anyone has any ideas for me:). Thank you for your patience in reading this LONG rambling post!

"Unbonded". Sorry for all of the autocorrects as I'm typing on my phone!